GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A former Pentwater-area business owner will spend time in prison for carrying out a “Ponzi-like” timber fraud scheme, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Michigan.

Trent Witteveen, 40, of Montague has been sentenced to 41 months in prison, the office announced Friday in a release. He has also been ordered to pay nearly $845,000 in restitution.

Witteveen, who was formerly a Pentwater resident, ran a timber harvesting business known as Titan Timber or Titans Timber LLC, the release says.

He would often tell investors that he had timber harvesting rights from landowners, asking investors for money to pay the landowners and promising the investors high returns, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“In reality, on most occasions, no current contracts for timber harvesting existed because, unknown to the investors, Witteveen had already harvested timber from the landowner’s property at an earlier time,” the release says.

To get more money from investors, Witteveen purposefully inflated the value of the timber on a landowner’s property, according to the attorney’s office. And to convince investors that he had contracts with landowners, the office says he would show investors cashier’s checks and money orders that were payable to the landowners — but then just deposit those funds back into his own account.

Officials say after getting money from investors, Witteveen would use the money to repay previous investors — or to pay back the same investor with their own money under the guise that he was paying the returns he had promised.

Between June 2018 and January 2021, Witteveen is accused of getting over $2 million from investors and using most of it on personal expenses.

“Witteveen stole from innocent investors by operating his sham timber business as a Ponzi scheme, solely to line his own pockets,” said U.S. Attorney Mark Totten in a statement. “Financial fraud is a serious problem and the schemes are endless. Today’s sentence sends a message that my office will vigorously prosecute fraudsters whose lies and misrepresentations cause devastating financial harm to honest and hard-working individuals.”